THE KITCHEN GARDEN

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 85, 4 January 1935, Page 14

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

Holiday Attention

Before you go on holiday a little extra work among the vegetables will be amply repaid-by the healthy appearance of the plants when you come borne. The chief danger in your absence will be the want of water and, in the case of Tomatoes, Marrows, Onions and other crops, the :ack of water and fertilizing nourishment. Thorough loosening of the surface soil with the Dutch hoe will ensure that most vegetables like Cabbage, Caulflower, Turnips, Lettuce, Parsnip, Celery, Carrot, Beetroot. Leek, Potato, Peas and Beans will not wither away for the lack of watering. Constant hoeing breaks up the soil into a fine tilth round the plants and prevents excessive heat from reaching the roots and drying them up. It is a good plau to give Peas and Beans a good soaking with water the night before you go on holiday. Vegetable Marrows will be bearing fruit and will need special attention, because water is indispensable to these plants. If it can be arranged, get a neighbour to water the plants every night. Marrows may be fed successfully without attention in the following way. The stem of the fruit is carefully slit, and a thick woollen thread passed through the slit. The two ends of the thread are then tied to a small stone and immersed in a pail of water, placed in a suitable position. The pail may be set on the ground level or sunk in the soil.

If the pail is large enough, a number of plants may be fed from the vessel. A 6-gallon pail should feed about ten fruits, for a week. A little liquid manure should be mixed with the water to supply’ nutrition, to the Marrows, a suitable mixture being about two handfuls of superphosphates of lime to 6 gallons of water. Tomatoes need feeding and watering also, but the stems need not be cut. The same method as above may be followed, but in this case one end of the wool should be in the pail and the other end at the i s bot of the plant, about 1-in under the soil near the stem of the plant. The end of the wool which is in the pail should be weighted with a small stone. A suitable feeding mixture for Tomatoes in the 6-gallon,s of water is 2 ounces common salt, 2 ounces common soda, 2 ounces superphosphate. As in the case of the Vegetable Marrows, one vessel may feed several Tomato plants. Ridge Cucumbers should be fed in the same way as the Marrows. DADDY LONG LEGS Why We Kill It There is a plague of Daddy Long Legs this year. Now, the Daddy Long Legs itself is quite harmless, but its larvae are destructive garden pests. The well-known leather jackets are the grubs of the Daddy Long Legs. The leather jacket spends about nine months in the soil, feeding upon the roots of the various plants. During this period it grows until it is about an inch long and then changes into a pupa. This pupa becomes an adult Daddy Long JLegs, which proceeds to lay eggs in the soil.

Each Daddy Long Legs is capable of laying several hundred eggs, each of which will become a leather jacket. It will be seen, therefore, that it will pay to kill every Daddy Long Legs possible. During December, and especially January, is when egg-laying takes place, >so that .now is the time to kill the insects. By this means the number of leather jackets will be reduced. You can protect plants at the present time by the use of one of the soil fumigants containing napthalene. This will kill or drive away any leather jackets present in the soil and destroy many other pests as well. GAZANIAS Take Cuttings Now The gazania is one of the most gorgeous of summer-flowering plants; it needs well-drained soil and a position fully open to the sunshine to do well. It is not hardj’ in the average garden and the way to ensure a stock of plants for another year is to take cuttings in January. These are prepared in the usual way by cutting the shoots beneath a joint or node and trimming off the lowest leaves; they are 'set round the edges of flower-pots filled with sandy soil. If the pots are placed in a cold frame which is kept closed for a few weeks the cuttings will form roots. They are potted separately when well rooted and kept safe from frost throughout winter. Another plan is to set the cuttings in a box of sandy soil and leave them undisturbed until spring, when they are set in separate pots and finally are planted out of doors for the summer.